Space Sunrise
by thisfairytalegonebad
Summary: "Fine, Keith huffs. "I was trying to ask you if you wanted to go to space in the Black Lion!" [James/Keith]


**Jaith/Jeith Week day 3 on Tumblr, prompt is "space". This one's less sappy than the previous ones, but they're watching a sunrise in space so that's gotta count double or something. Enjoy!**

* * *

"Have you ever been to space?" Keith asks out of the blue one day.

James blinks at him incredulously a few times before he narrows his eyes. "What kind of question is that? No, I haven't been to space, I've been a little busy trying to defend Earth from some aliens. What, are you bragging now because you've been to space and I haven't?"

And then, Keith actually has the nerve to roll his eyes at him. "No, you moron, I wasn't trying to brag."

"Then what were you trying to do?"

"Maybe now I don't want to tell you anymore."

"Keith," James sighs. He's tired, and he doesn't exactly have the energy to bicker with Keith now, no matter how much fun it usually is.

"Fine, Keith huffs. "I was trying to ask you if you wanted to go to space in the Black Lion!"

James deflates. "...oh."

Keith glares at him. "Yeah."

"I- uh," James says awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I would like to go, actually. If you still want to."

Keith's glare disappears and is replaced with a shy smile. "Cool. We can go now, if you don't have any other plans?"

It's eight o'clock in the evening, they've had a long day, and they'll have a long day tomorrow. Yes, James has other plans, such as taking a shower, maybe eating something, and then collapsing onto his bed without moving until the next morning, so naturally, he says, "Sure. Yeah. Let's do that now. Uh… as long as you get us back before we're needed again tomorrow?"

Keith gives him an unamused look. "Yeah, sure, I promise to bring your boring stuck-up ass back in time. No worries."

"Well, excuse me for caring about rules," James huffs, but there's no real heat behind it.

It sounds a bit surreal, going on an impromptu space trip right now, but honestly… he has seen stranger things at this point, and so he follows Keith who is already making his way to his huge lion shaped spaceship - which also sounds quite fake when he thinks of it like that, but whatever.

The Black Lion is impressive, James has to admit. It's enormous, inside and out. The cockpit is full of strange symbols, buttons and levers, and James doesn't understand any of it despite being a pretty damn good pilot himself. Then again, from what he understands, the lions are somehow bonded to their paladins, so maybe it's something that can only be understood by someone who has the bond to a lion… or maybe Keith is really just that much better than him, but he really prefers his initial theory.

When he takes a closer look at the setup of the cockpit, he laughs as he realizes something.

"What," Keith immediately wants to know, frowning at him.

"Such amazing tech, so advanced and stuff, yet they didn't think to add a passenger seat?" James grins.

Keith's face falls a little, and James instantly feels a little bad for it. "Oh, right… Sorry, I kinda forgot about that. You'll have to stand, sorry. Unless you don't wanna go anymore at all..?"

James quickly waves him off. "Nah, don't worry, I'll just stand."

He doesn't mind standing when he's about to go to space, no matter how tired he is. Even better, he gets to go to space with Keith, which is honestly more than he's ever imagined.

A relieved smile spreads across Keith's face. "Okay, great. Now, hold on tight!"

* * *

Space is gorgeous. Once they're up there, James completely forgets how to speak for a solid five minutes. Keith turns his lion so they're facing Earth, letting James admire the unique view of his home planet from the outside.

"You like it?" Keith finally asks, looking amused by James' expression of complete awe.

"Are you kidding?" James asks right back once he's managed to pick his jaw off the floor. "This is amazing. I've never seen anything more beautiful…"

"Just you wait," Keith tells him, pushing a lever, and the Black Lion goes even faster than before.

At some point, Keith actually flies them through an asteroid field, and James thinks it's simultaneously the most amazing and terrifying thing he has ever lived through, and that was counting the alien invasion and the enslavement and genocide of a big part of Earth.

It's exciting and all, but after a while, they're flying through a pretty dark, empty part of the universe for quite some time, and now that the novelty of being in space has worn off a little and there isn't anything to focus on in this part of space, James begins to feel even more tired than before.

He stifles a yawn, but Keith still notices. "You can sleep in the back if you wanna. There's a mat and a blanket in the cabinet over there."

James hesitates. He kind of really wants to sleep a little, but… they're in space, he feels like he shouldn't sleep in space. What if he misses something?

"We'll be flying through this boring part of the universe for a while longer," Keith says as if he's been reading James' thoughts. "There probably won't be anything cool til we reach the spot I wanna show you. I'll wake you when we're there, promise."

Staring at Keith for a moment, James considers. Stares out of the window, back at Keith, then at the cabinet with the sleep stuff Keith mentioned, and finally back at Keith again. He sighs heavily. "Yeah, fine, I'll… do that. Thanks."

Once he's lying down, it still takes a few minutes for sleep to claim him because he can't quite silence the thought of being in space, but in the end, he still falls asleep.

* * *

Someone shakes James' shoulder gently, and he groans and tries to shake the hand off his back, but it remains where it is, giving him another shake.

"James," Keith whispers, "Wake up. We're here."

Sleepily, James opens his eyes and stares up at Keith's face where he's crouching beside him. He actually feels a lot less tired than he did before, which leads him to wonder…

"Hey, how long have I slept for?"

Keith blinks in surprise. "Uh, a few hours. Why?"

James pales a little. "Have we been flying all this time?" If they were, how are they supposed to get back in time?

Keith rolls his eyes at him, though. "Relax, we've been here for hours. I just wanted to let you sleep a little more, we'll still make it back in time. Now get your ass up, I wanted to show you something."

James lets Keith pull him up and towards the window, and what he sees nearly takes his breath away.

Keith has landed the lion on the surface of some planet Earth's scientists probably haven't even discovered yet.

And outside, there is the most beautiful sunrise James has ever seen.

* * *

 **Here's the link to the Tumblr post for this event for anyone who's interested: post/177174562099/james-and-keith-week-is-anyone-really-surprised**


End file.
